School of Fish (Fish Out of Water #6) - Amy Lane Page 0,98

in a moment of delight, turned the tables on him.

“How about food. Have you eaten? You look like you need protein. Sit down. Rest, Ellery. Let me feed you. You should have food before you pass out. You can’t neglect your health, you know.”

Ellery’s chuckle was both tired and a little hysterical. “Oh my God, you’re being an asshole.”

“I’m the asshole who cooked something that wasn’t mac and cheese, so be nice and sit down.” Jackson moved to the stove and started plating up their dinner, making sure to give Ellery a generous portion of steamed veggies ’cause they were good for you!

He set down the plate and some cutlery and then set his own place before moving back to the fridge and pulling out a chilled chardonnay.

Jackson had soda that filled him with deep delight—but Ellery really loved one, maybe two, glasses of wine.

He poured Ellery’s wine and then a half glass for himself, and sat down to his pork chops, risotto, and salad. He’d taken over some of the cooking while he’d been on sick leave—mostly from sheer boredom—and he was rather proud of how much he’d learned.

Ellery was chewing on a bite of pork chop, eyes closed in appreciation. “Mm… this is good. Did you make the marinade?”

“Store bought, like the risotto in a box,” Jackson confessed. “But that sweet-and-sour stuff? That was my idea.”

Ellery tasted it. “Hey, that’s great! What is that?”

“Balsamic vinegar and strawberry jam,” Jackson told him, grinning. “You like?”

Ellery was regarding him in shock. “Balsamic… and…. What in the hell?”

“Sweet and sour.” Jackson shrugged and took his own bite, smiling with a certain amount of self-satisfaction. “It totally works.”

“Oh my God, it does.” Ellery took another bite and washed it down with a sip of wine, and some of the exhaustion that had colored his movements as he’d come in washed away. “And you didn’t give me a chance to explain about the car.”

Jackson shifted uncomfortably and then winced. Gah! Stitches. On. His. Ass. The fuck! “You don’t need—”

“I need to trust you,” Ellery blurted.

Jackson looked at him in surprise. “Ellery, I’m not ever playing around on you. You know that!”

Ellery grimaced and nodded. “The fact that you think that’s what I meant means I teased you about that way too often, and I’m sorry.”

Jackson shrugged and took his own sip of wine. “I have a history,” he said.

“And I’m so impressed with you,” Ellery replied simply. “In just… all the ways. I look at you, and I think, ‘No wonder he’s slept with half of Sacramento. Everybody wants him. I don’t blame them. He’s amazing.’”

Oh my God. Jackson’s face was on fire, and he couldn’t even look across the table. “I’m a hot mess,” he admitted. Ellery knew this. Jackson had taken all those people to his bed to keep the nightmares at bay, because a body in there with him usually meant he could at least wake up before he sat up screaming.

“And it was self-protection,” Ellery said softly. “I know this. But that’s not why those people came to your bed. They came because you made them feel good. And you still do—just not with sex. And that’s amazing. But you have never even given me a doubt that way. In the last year, from the moment we first became a we, I knew I was important to you. You weren’t going to play around because you and I were serious. I’ve never doubted—never doubted—that you would be faithful, because that’s how your heart is made, Jackson Rivers. That’s not the kind of trust I was talking about.”

Jackson could hardly look at him. His brown eyes were so tired, but he was so earnest. It was one of the qualities Jackson had loved about him from the first. Ellery Cramer did and said exactly what he meant.

“I, uhm, I’ve scared you a lot,” he said, knowing what this was about now.

“You think?” Ellery retorted, but he didn’t follow it up with a snort of humor, or even with a sip of wine. “I know you don’t think much of yourself, but I knew what I had from the very beginning. You are such a good man. And you cared for me, and I was—am—so afraid that you’ll just throw that away because you don’t understand how important you are to me. To your family. But look at this.” He gestured to the dinner. “Look at you.”

Jackson’s face had still not gotten any cooler. “I have stitches in my ass,” he